Capturing the Extraordinary in the Ordinary!

Tag: son of David

“He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever… And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.” 2 Samuel 7:13, 16 (NKJV)

As we talk about kingdom, it is impossible to exclude the other two aspects – house and throne. In the two verses above, there was mentioned of house, throne and kingdom. They are different aspects of the Davidic Kingdom with distinct features.

The Three Aspects of the Davidic Kingdom

The house is linked with the king. The house provides a lineage of kings where there is continuity in kingship over the Kingdom. To diffentiate the Davidic Kingdom from the generic kingdom, small caps is used instead. In general, kingdom is represented by people and land. The Davidic Kingdom does involve a physical location, which is the boundaries promised by God. Historically, we know that Israel has been in first exile by Assyria in about 733 BCE, commonly called the diaspora. The geographical land became a sovereign Israel state once again in 1948. You can take a look at the timeline of Israel which is interesting (https://embassies.gov.il/UnGeneva/AboutIsrael/history/Pages/History-Israel-Timeline.aspx). For a kingdom to exist, both people and land are needed. The third aspect is throne. Physically a throne is a ceremonial chair, but it represents authority to rule. A kingdom can have a king, with people and land in place, but if there is no throne, the kingdom will be in chaos.

“In mercy the throne will be established;And One will sit on it in truth, in the tabernacle of David,Judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness.” – Isaiah 16:5 (NKJV)

The authority of a throne comes with it the legal system and governance that holds a kingdom together. I love how Isaiah 16:5 starts with mercy as the throne is also the place of judgement. Instead of judgement, the throne in the Davidic covenant is based on mercy which was discussed in Part 6. From this Isaiah verse, it is clear that The Tabernacle of David is not just about worship and intercession, but actual rule and authority that is given to the son of David.

Below is a simple diagram to summarise the three aspects.

The “No End” of the Kingdom

“He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” – Luke 1:32-33 (NKJV)

In these Luke verses, the dual identity of Jesus is mentioned – Son of David and Son of God. The Kingdom of David, reigning over the house of Jacob is declared but there is no mention of the Kingdom of God here. The only characteristic of this kingdom indicated here is “no end”. “Forever” was also mentioned three times in 2 Samuel 7:13, 16. What does “no end” or “forever” actually mean since it is emphasised repeatedly?

The Greek word for “end” used in Luke 1:33 is “telos“, according to the lexicon it means “the limit at which a thing ceases to be (always of the end of some act or state, but not of the end of a period of time)“. It is interesting that the end does not allude to time, which was what I had in mind before searching out the lexicon for its Greek word. My initial interpretation was the Kingdom of David is eternal. Now understanding what telos mean, the Kingdom of David goes deeper beyond time eternity but the state of its kingdom will not cease. The significance is that the Kingdom of David will NOT fluctuate, going through the rise and fall of kingdoms as demonstrated by human history of all nations. There is a stability in the Kingdom of David promised, a good finality.

Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven during His short three years of ministry on earth found in the four Gospels. The Romans labeled him “king of the Jews” when Jesus died on the cross. With the dual identity of Jesus as Son of David and Son of God, He does not only reign as king over the Kingdom of David, but also the Kingdom of God. This is a difficult concept to grasp as two kingdoms are coexisting in a same Person who is king over both. I will try a weak attempt using a modern day example. Not too long ago, the United States was regarded as the sovereign super power nation of the world and the President of the United States is considered the world leader. A world leader has to come from a particular nation. For Jesus, it is Israel from the lineage of King David. Being the king of Israel does not stop or restrict Him from being the leader over all of God’s Kingdom, i.e. the world, while Israel has its own people and geographical location.

Telos besides being used in Rev 21:26 & 22:13 in the description of Jesus as “the Beginning and the End”, is also found in Rev 2:26.

“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—” – Revelation 2:26 (NKJV)

The other definition of telos is eternal. If applying this definition to Rev 2:26, it means keeping God’s works for eternity! In other words, there is “no end”. This is the promise given to church in Thyatira and I believe it applies to all believers who continually overcome and walk in obedience. The reward is authority over the nations, meaning to reign with Christ! What a privilege! The Kingdom of David extends to the nations in the Kingdom of God.

There is so much to study about the Kingdom of God but I will stop here as the topic is the Kingdom in relation to Davidic Covenant. Thus in this post, the only focus was forever as mentioned in the Davidic Covenant. It will be interesting to study more about the Kingdom of God as if we do not know the Kingdom of God, our recitation of the Lord’s prayer “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done here on earth as in heaven” will one be a superficial recitation and not a conviction.

“When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men.” – 2 Samuel 7:12-14 (NKJV)

The seed of David is a descendent of David. The Davidic Covenant goes beyond the lifetime of King David himself. Yet, it is not descendants, but a particular descendent as it is singular in all mention of him.

I want to first establish that King Solomon is NOT the descendent referred to in this context based on the few conditions stated in this covenant.

“Build a house for God’s name” – Solomon did build temple for God but it never carried God’s name. It was called the Temple of Solomon.

“Establish the throne of his kingdom forever” – We know historically that after Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel was in a decline and eventually lost her sovereignty.

“I will be his Father, and he shall be My son” – Solomon was known as the son of David, never as a son of God.

I will be his Father, and he shall be My son

This one line blew my mind. God adopts David’s son as His own. This is a singular individual adoption of a son of David. We as believers are children of God as a collective through Jesus Christ, i.e. a second degree adoption. The Davidic Covenant is a first degree direct adoption by God with David the father. This means that this son will be called both son of David and son of God. Based on this, we know the only person carrying this dual identity is Jesus Christ. Jesus’ genealogy traces back to David (Matthew 1:1-17, Luke 3:23-38, Romans 1:3-4, Revelation 5:5 & 22:16).

Following this declaration, God went on to talk about chastening this son. God was clear that He will not give special concession to His son from earthly human discipline for trespasses. The son of God is not spared of the consequences of sin as the son of David, a man, no concession or exemption. It is hard to reconcile this as we know that Jesus was sinless on earth. The Son of God should not have sin on him. Yet as the son of David and as the king over all nations (as discussed in Part 4 on Rest), the responsibility of the sin of all his subjects in the kingdom is upon him. This is what great leaders do. Jesus did exactly this. He went on the cross for the sin of all in His Kingdom, suffering the “rod and blows of man”.

Throne of His Kingdom Forever

The only possible kingdom that will last forever, literally eternity, will be one of God. No earthly king could ever achieve this, even the greatest empires and kingdoms. This is impossible by human means and effort. Therefore God promised to establish this kingdom. God repeated “I will establish his kingdom” and “I will establish the throne of his kingdom” with the emphasis of His sovereignty in this matter.

House for God’s Name

God stated that this house will carry the name of God. This makes complete sense as the kingdom and throne will be established by God Himself. The Tabernacle of David was named after David, similarly the Temple of Solomon after Solomon. We know that historically, Temple of Solomon was destroyed 586 BCE when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant was also lost. There was no physical house built for God since then till present. So what might this house be?

“Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.” – John 2:19-22 (NKJV)

Jesus talked about destroying the Temple and rebuilding it again in three days. Verse 22 interpreted it for us as Christ’s death and resurrection. John Piper’s exposition on this passage provided a second level of understanding that “this temple” that Jesus was referring to can also mean the physical temple that He was in at that time (https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/destroy-this-temple-and-in-three-days-i-will-raise-it-up). The Pharisees were on the road to destroying the temple when they hide their love for money behind religion. The temple is only truly a temple when the presence of God in the temple, otherwise it is an empty shell. Based on this definition of a temple, Jesus is the temple of God as He embodies 100% of God here on earth.

I love the word used in this covenant is house and not temple. House is God’s abiding place with relationship and intimacy. Whereas a temple is more ritualistic that is distant and formal. This covenant is a paradigm shift. The house of God is moved from place to person, represented by the shift from temple to house, which I see as from ritualistic to relational.

“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” – 1 Corinthian 3:16 (NKJV)

Based on the same rationale that the temple of God is where God presence is, followers of Jesus Christ who are filled with the Spirit of God are also temple of God. The temple of God has now been decentralised and scattered where geographical location is no longer a limitation. The “seed” has multiplied!

Jesus is the Seed

Conclusion of the matter is that Jesus is the seed or descendent referred to in the Davidic Covenant. As straight forward as this conclusion is to some, I appreciated the multi-levels and depth of this implication to my revelation of Jesus Christ’s purpose of birth, life, death, resurrection, and second coming.